1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor design and manufacturing. More specifically, the present invention relates to improving process model accuracy by modeling mask corner rounding (MCR) effects.
2. Related Art
Rapid advances in computing technology have made it possible to perform trillions of computational operations each second on data sets that are sometimes as large as trillions of bytes. These advances can be attributed to the dramatic improvements in semiconductor manufacturing technologies which have made it possible to integrate tens of millions of devices onto a single chip.
Semiconductor manufacturing technologies typically include a number of processes which involve complex physical and chemical interactions. Since it is almost impossible to find exact formulae to predict the behavior of these complex interactions, researchers typically use process models which are fit to empirical data to predict the behavior of these processes. A process model can be used in a number of applications during the design of a semiconductor chip. For example, process models are commonly used for making corrections to layouts to compensate for undesirable effects of semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Inaccuracies in the process model can negatively affect the efficacy of downstream applications. For example, inaccuracies in the process model can reduce the efficacy of optical proximity correction (OPC). As semiconductor integration densities continue to increase at an exponential rate, the accuracy of process models is becoming increasingly important. Hence, it is desirable to improve process model accuracy.